Spicy Pesto Prawns and Pasta

This one has become our favourite. It's very easy to whip up and if you are up to a past that's full of flavour and really spicy - then this is the one. You can also use chicken instead of prawns. And any small type of pasta will do - in fact, I've used linguine before as well. However, I like best using the fusilli pasta (smooth  spirals) because the gaps between the spirals catch the pesto and makes the pasta really tasty when you eat it. Give it a try and I'm sure if you are one who enjoys spicy food - you got to love this one, too. Enjoy... :-)

Ingredients:

500 g uncooked fusilli (or any small pasta like farfalle, etc.)

3 tbsps olive oil

1 tbsp hot chilli paste (I normally use 2 tbsps to make it extra hot)

500 g raw prawns

6 tbsps pre-made basil pesto

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup chopped coriander

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Place pasta in the pot, cook for 8 to 10 mins, until al dente and drain.

2. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in  large fry pan over medium heat.

3. Mix in the chilli paste and prawns. Cook and stir the prawns for 10 minutes or until pinkish.

4. Toss the cooked fusilli, pesto, parmesan cheese, and coriander into the frypan and continue cooking until heated through.

Italina Beef Pot Roast in Red Wine Sauce with Creamy Mashed Potato

This was my first beef roast (be it pot or something else). And it was one great flavoured roast. The red wine combined with the rest of the ingredients was really very tasty. You would see in the picture - it's quite well done but that's because I like my beef cooked that way (actually I like all my meat cooked that way). The sauce compensates for the well done beef though. My husband, everytime we go out for a steak dinner, he always orders his steak medium rare but when he tried this roast, he said it was really good. So, I think pot roasts are really good because you get all that sauce that complements if ever you make or like your beef a bit well done.

Also, I never imagined myself eating onions - but once I marinated those and then, cooked in the oven with the beef - result was a resounding 'wow...'. Even celery was never my favourite but when you cook that with this - it was amazing. By the way, did I mention that raw celery sticks are really good in loosing weight in a sense that it helps your digestion. Anyway, I think the key is to try on new things even if that's somehow out of ordinary for you because you will always miss if you don't try new things. :-)

Whipping up the creamy mashed potato is quite easy as well and goes very well with this roast.

So - give this a try and enjoy. :-)

Italian Beef Pot Roast in Red Wine Sauce

Ingredients:

1.8 kg brisket of beef
225 g small onions, peeled
3 garlics cloves, peeled and chopped
2 celery sticks, trimmed and chopped
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
450 g ripe tomatoes
300 ml Italian red wine (or any cooking red wine will do)
2 tbsp olive oil
300 ml beef stock
1 tbsp tomato puree
2 tsp freeze-dried mixed herbs
salt and freshly ground black pepper
25 g butter
25 g plain flour
freshly cooked vegetables to serve

1. Place the beef in a bowl. Add the onions, garlic, celery and carrots. Place the tomatoes in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Allow to stand for 2 minutes and drain. Peel away the skins, discard the seeds and chop, then add to the bowl the red wine. Cover tightly and marinate in the refrigerator overnight.
2. Preheat oven to 150 deg celcius, 10 minutes before cooking.
3. Lift the marinade beef from the bowl and pat dry with absorbent kitchen paper. Heat the olive oil in a large casserole dish and cook the beef until it is browned all over, then remove from the dish.
4. Drain the vegetables from the marinade, reserving the marinade. Add the vegetables to the casserole dish and fry gently for 5 mins, stirring occasionally, until all the vegetables are browned.
5. Return the beef to the casserole dish with the marinade, beef stock, tomato puree, mixed herbs and season with salt and pepper. Bring to the boil, then cover and cook in the preheated oven for 3 hours.
6. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the beef and any large vegetables to a plate and leave in a warm place. Blend the butter and flour to form a paste.
7. Bring the casserole juices to the boil and then gradually stir in small spoonfuls of the paste. Cook until thickened.
8. Serve the beef roast with the sauce and a selection of vegetables.

Creamy Mashed Potato

Ingredients:
4 large potatoes
3-4 tbsps milk
60 g butter
2 tbsps sour cream

1. Chop the potatoes and cook in boiling salted wated until just tender, then drain.
2. Return the potato to the pan over low heat. Add the milk and quickly mash, adding more milk, if necessary, for fluffy potatoes.
3. Beat in the butter and sour cream and season well with salt and pepper.

Pineapple Cranberry Upside-Down Cake

This is another real easy recipe. Something that is hard to get wrong. :-) And very tasty, too. I've tried this recipe twice now. The second time when some of our friends came over our house - there was only one small slice left afterwards. :-) So - give this recipe a try.

Ingredients:

20 g butter, melted

2 tbsps soft brown sugar

440 g can pineapple slices in natural juice

90 g butter

1/2 cup caster sugar

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 cup raising flour

cranberries for topping (fresh or canned) - you can also use other types of berries

1. Preheat the oven to moderate 180 deg celcius. Grease a 20 cm ring tin. Pour the melted butter into the tin and tip to coat the base evenly. Sprinkle the brown sugar over the butter.

2. Drain the pineapple, reserving 1/3 cup of the juice. Cut the pineapple pieces into halves and arrange over the brown sugar.

3. Using electric beaters, beat the butter and sugar in a small bowl until light and creamy.

4. Add the eggs gradually, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla essence.

5. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl. Using a metal spoon, fold in the flour alternately with the reserved pineapple juice.

6. Spoon the mixture evenly over the pineapple and smiith the surface.

7. Bake for 35-40 mins, or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the center.

8. Leave in the tin for 10 mins, then cool on a wire rack.

Spiced Couscous & Vegetables with Baked Salmon

This is one great recipe and one both my husband and I thoroughly enjoyed. I prepared this for my husband's success on CISCO (part of his career development as a network engineer) at that time. This was one of the things I tried at the beginning of my cooking escapades and it did help me to keep on cooking because it was so good - I wanted to do another recipe that I would be proud of again. And it was easy to do, too. The spiced flavour of the couscous paired with the baked salmon - yuummmm. Even while I'm blogging now - I am thinking of revisiting this recipe this weekend. On top of all that, the couscous and vegetables recipe is guaranteed low fat - a very healthy recipe indeed.

So do try this. Hope you'll enjoy as much as we did. :-)

SPICED COUSCOUS and VEGETABLES

 Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil

1 large shallot, peeled and finely chopped

1 garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped

1 small red pepper, deseeded and cut into strips

1 small yellow pepper, deseeded and cut into strips

1 small aubergine or 2 medium size egg plants

1 tsp each turmeric, ground cumin, ground cinnamon and paprika

2 tsp ground coriander

large pinch saffron strands (as this is quite expensive in Australia, I just used 1/2 tsp of imitation saffron powder)

2 tomatoes, peeled, deseeded and diced

2 tbsp lemon juice

225 g couscous

225 ml vegetable stock

2 tbsp raisins

2 tbsp almonds

2 tbsp freshly chopped parsley

2 tbsp freshly chopped coriander

salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Heat the oil in a large frying pan and add the shallot and garlic and cook for 2-3 minutes until softened. Add the peppers and aubergine or egg plant and reduce the heat.

2. Cook for 8-10 minutes until the vegetables are tender, adding a little water if necessary.

3. Test a piece of aubergine or egg plant to ensure it is cooked through. Add all the spices and cook for a further minute, stirring.

4. Increase the heat and add the tomatoes and lemon juice. Cook for 2-3 minutes until the tomatoes have started to break down. Remove from heat and leave to cook slightly.

5. Meanwhile, put the couscous into a large bowl. Bring the stock to the boil in a saucepan, then pour over the couscous. Stir well and cover with a clean tea towel.

6. Leave to stand for 7-8 munutes until all the stock is absorbed and the couscous is tender.

7. Uncover the couscous and fluff with a fork. Stir in the vegetable and spice mixture along with the raisins, almonds, parsley and coriander. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve.

BAKED SALMON

Ingredients:

2 salmon steak fillets

half of lemon

salt and pepper

1. Preheat the oven at 180 deg celcius. 

2. Drizzle the salmon with olive oil and lemon then, season with salt and pepper.

3. Wrap the salmon with aluminum foil and place in a baking dish or tray.

4. Bake for about 20-25 mins. Then, serve hot with slices of lemons and couscous.

Banana Cake

This was one of the few recipes I tried when I started cooking. It wasn't as easy as I thought it was supposed to be. I think may be I didn't know better in the kitchen at that time. I think it wasn't that bad, I mean we still enjoyed eating it. But now looking back, I think I may have over beaten the banana mixture - which made the cake a bit hard. I am definitely going to try this recipe again one of these days and see if I have improved.

The recipe as follows.

Ingredients:

125 g butter

1/2 cup caster sugar

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 cup milk

2 cups self-raising flour, sifted

Butter Frosting:

125 g butter

3/4 cup icing sugar

1 tbsp lemon juice

1/4 cup nuts

1. Preheat the oven to moderate 180 deg celcius (350 deg farenheit). Grease a 20 cm (8 inch) round cake tin and line the base with baking paper.

2. Using electric beaters, beat the butter and sugar in a small mixing bowl unitl light and creamy. Add the eggs gradually, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla essence and mashed bananas, and beat until combined.Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl.

3. Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in the milk. Using a metal spoon, fold in the sifted flour alternately with the milk. Stir until the ingredients are just combined and the mixture is smooth. Spoon into the tin and smooth the surface.

4. Bake for 1 hour, or until a skewer comes out clent when inserted into the centre of the cake. Leave the cake in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.

5. To make the frosting, beat the butter, icing sugar and lemon juice with electric beaters until smooth and creamy. Spread onto the cooled cake.

6. Toast the nuts in a moderate 180 deg celcius oven for about 8 mins and sprinkle on top of the cake.

Pumpkin Scones

This is one of our favourites especially for breakfast or even for morning/afternoon tea, served with jam and cream. I've made these several times already - and still I'm making every now and then (as popularly demanded by my husband). :-) They said that pumpkin scone is a Queenslander thing as Queensland is abundant with pumpkins. But then again it's abundant with so many other farming products. Anyway, this one is real easy to whip up - so very convenient for a busy professional like me. :-)

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups self raising flour

1/2 cup instant full cream milk powder

45 grams butter

1 cup mashed cooked pumpkin

1/4 cup sultanas or raisins

1/3 cup water

1. Preheat oven to 200 degress celcius.

2. Sift flour into a large bowl, add the milk powder. Rub in butter lightly with fingertips.

3. Add pumpkin, sultanas or raisins and water. Mix to a soft dough.

4. Turn out onto a floured surface, knead lightly. Pat dough out until 2 cm thick. Cut into rounds using a cutter (about 5 cm).

4. Place scones close together on grease baking tray. Brush with fresh milk.

5. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden.

6. Serve with strawberry jam and cream.

Chicken Adobo A La Orange

Chicken Adobo is a very popular dish back in the Philippines. Anyway, we had some extra oranges, which looked like they were about to expire. So - I used them with my chicken adobo! So, here goes:

Ingredients:

6 cloves garlic, crushed

1 cup cider vinegar

1 1/2 chicken stock

1 bay leaf

1 tsp coriander seeds

1 tsp black peppercorns

1/4 tsp paprika with a generous pinch of turmeric

3 tbsps soy sauce

2 medium oranges, juiced (cut 3 thin slices before juicing and set aside for garnishing)

1.5 kg chicken pieces

2 tbps olive oil

onion and green chilli, chopped (for garnishing)

1. Combine the garlic, vinegar, chicken stock, bay leaf, coriander seeds, black peppercorns, paprika with turmeric, soy sauce and orange juice in a large bowl. Add the chicken, cover and leave to marinate in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

2. Transfer the chicken mixture to a large heavy-based pan and bring to a boil.

3. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove the lid from the pan and continue cooking for 10 minutes, or until the chicken is tender. Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside.

4. Bring the liquid to a boil again and cook over high heat for 10 minutes, or until the liquid has reduced by half.

5. Heat the oil in a wok or large frying pan, add the chiken in batches and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, or until crisp and brown.

6. Pour the reduces vinegar mixture over the chicken pieces and garnish with chopped onion, green chilli and orange slices.

7. Serve with rice.

Sweet Garlic Eggplant

This is one great dish - very tasty. Another dish I prepared when my brother-in-law came for a visit. This is a Filipino-Chinese combination dish, which is best served with fresh boiled rice.

So - here goes the recipe:

Ingredients:
3 medium eggplants
7 tbsps oil (I used extra-virgin olive oil)
1 1/2 tsps finely chopped garlic
6 tsps caster sugar
6 tsps soy sauce
6 tsps cider vinergar
1 tbps dry sherry

1. Cut the eggplants in half lengthways and then, slice into wedges about 3 cm wide. Cut the wedges into pieces about 3 cm long.
2. Heat 3 tbps oil in a wok or heavy-based frying pan, swirling gently to coat the base and sides. Add half the eggplant and stir-fry over high heat for 5 minutes, or until browned and all the oil is absorbed. Transfer to a plate.
3. Repeat the cooking procedure with another 3 tbsps oil and the remaining eggplant.
4. Heat the remaining oil in the wok, swirling gently to coat the base and sides. Add the garlic and cook slowly until just golden.
5. Add the sugar, soy sauce, vinegar and sherry. Bring to a boil, stirring.
6. Add the eggplant and simmer for 3 minutes to allow it to absorb the sauce.
7. Serve with fresh boiled white rice.

Bombay Beef Curry

My brother-in-law and his daughter came for a visit from Sydney. This was one of the dishes I prepared for them. My husband's brother owns an Indian Restaurant and I've always known him to be a great cook. So - it was a bit daunting cooking something, which he is an expert of. But nonetheless, I had to try - result was not bad at all. He thought it was good. :-) And he did eat a fair amount - so may be it was really good. Anyway, why don't you give it a go...

Ingredients:

1 tbsp oil

2 medium onions, chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 green chillies, chopped

1 tbsp grated fresh ginger

1 1/2 tsps ground turmeric

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tbsp ground coriander

1/2 - 1 tsp chilli powder (depending on how spicy hot you want it to be)

1 kg beef (or you can use lamb, too), cut into bite-sized cubes

1 tsp salt

410 grams can crushed tomatoes

1 cup coconut milk

fresh coriander leaves or mint or unsalted cashew nuts or lemon slices, to garnish (I used mint and lemon slices as garnish)

1. Heat the oil in a large pan; add the onion and cook over medium hear, stirring, until just soft.

2. Add the garlic, green chilli, ginger, turmeric, cumin, coriander and chilli powder. Stir until just heater through.

3. Add the meat and cook, stirring, over high heat until the meat is well coated with the spice mixture and browned all over.

4. Stir in the salt and undrained tomatoes and simmer, covered for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or until the meat is tender.

5. Add the coconut milt and stir; simmer, uncovered, for another 5 minutes or until the sauce has thickened slightly.

6. Serve garnished with coriander leaves or mint leaves or unsalted cashew nuts or lemon slices, if desired.

Butter Chicken

I was having my lunch break from work one time. Then, happened to pass by a nearby book shop and voila - I found this so far amazing cook book on essential asian cuisines. The book is sectioned according to different Asian countries such as China, Indonesia, Singapore & Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Laos & Cambodia, India & Pakistan and a few others - which I think is really good. Actually, I did find a cookbook on whipping simple Italian dishes - which I thought was also very interesting - but ended up buying the asian cuisines cookbook. I think I might actually go back to that book shop some other time and buy that Italian dishes cookbook, too. Anyway, the first dish I did from that Asian cookbook was the Butter Chicken - an Indian dish - using those real spices like garam masala, chilli powder, ground cumin, etc... :-) As my usual habit, when I look through a recipe, I normally check on the ingredients only. This was one of those times, unfortunately. So bought all the other ingredients I didn't have in our pantry. I started at 6pm on a Sunday intending to have it for dinner, with a very excited hubby looking forward to the dish, only to find out that I needed to marinate the chicken pieces for 4 hours first!!!! Yes, I'm sure one could probably get away without marinating that long however, as I am new in this field - I am entirely a slave of the book. Still building up my confidence on trying things a bit different from what's in the book. So - ended up whipping a very easy dish for Sunday's dinner and marinated those chickens overnight. So, lesson learned from this - always read the cooking instructions first so I can plan my time accordingly! Anyway, as my husband's office is near our home, he always comes home earlier than me so, I asked him to do the honours of baking the chicken when he gets home. So, by the time I came home today - the chicken was baked and all I needed to do was pretty much the rest of the instructions in the cookbook - which were straight forward. It was pretty exciting and result wasn't that bad at all - when compared to some of the butter chicken we have tasted in restaurants before. I know it sounds patronising :-) and I only have my husband and myself to comment - but truly, it was pretty amazing considering I've never tried cooking an indian dish before from scratch. My husband normally cooks this type of dish - and he uses those ready made spices, i.e. spices necessary for a certain dish have been combined for you in a packet so basically, all you have to do most of the time is to combine the meat and the packet of spices in a heated pan. The secret, which works for me is to just follow the book especially if it's your first time and you will mostly get it right. So, here goes:

Ingredients:

1 kg chicken thigh fillets

1 tsp salt (I used lemon salt as I had it handy)

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 cup yoghurt

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

3 cm piece fresh ginger, grated

1 green chilli, choped

2 tsps garam masala

2 tsps yellow food colouring (I used turmeric)

1 tsp red food colouring

1/2 cup tomato puree (passata - as they call it)

1/2 cup water

2 cm piece fresh ginger, extra, finely grated

1 cup cream

1 tsp garam masala, extra

2 tsps sugar

1/4 tsp chilli powder (My husband and I loved spicy food - so I used 1 tsp of chilli powder)

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp ground cumin

100g butter

1. Cut the chicken into strips 2 cm thick. Sprinkle with the salt and 1/4 cup lemon juice.

2. Place the yoghurt, onion, garlic, ginger, chilli and garam masala in a food processor and process until smooth.

3. Combine the food colourings in a small bowl, brush over the chicken pieces and turn to coat. Add the yoghurt mixture and toss to combine. Cover and refrigerate for 4 hours. Remove the chicken from the marinade and allow to drain for 5 minutes.

4. Preheat the oven at 220 degrees celcius. Bake the chicken in a shallow baking dish for 15 minutes, or until tender. Drain off any excess juice, cover loosely with foil and keep warm. Set aside.

5. Combine the tomato puree and water in a large jug. Add the ginger, cream, extra garam masala, sugar, chilli powder. lemon juice and cumin. Stir to combine.

6. Melt the butter in a large pan over medium heat. Stir in the tomato mixture and bring to a boil. Cook for 2 minutes, then reduce the heat and add the chicken pieces. Stir to coat the chicken in the sauce and simmer for 2 minutes longer or until heated through. Serve with rice.

Sweet Potato Jam

I love yams - ube jam being on the top of my list. This is a common dessert back home, which is made of purple yam or  'ube' as we call it in our native tongue. Unfortunately, here in Australia - it's difficult to find fresh purple yam. Sure, there are frozen cooked purple yams available in some Asian stores but the end result is quite never as good as when you use the fresh ones. So, anyway - I thought I'd give sweet potatoes a try to replace the purple yams. I was thinking they are kind of in the same species so thought it might just do as well. The results especially when you serve it chilled - was absolutely great. My husband never liked to eat sweet potatoes for some reason - but he did when I made yam out of it and in fact, I had to hide it to make him stop eating the whole lot in one sitting...hahaha. Okay - I may be exaggerating a bit but the picture was pretty close to that :-). So - I will definitely be trying this again sometime.

Ingredients:

1 kl of cooked sweet potatoes (or you can use purple yam)

1/2 cup of melted unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups of condensed milk

1/2 cup of thickened cream

2 cups of evaporated milk

1/2 tsp of vanilla essence

1. In a big pot, boil the unpeeled sweet potatoes in water for 30 minutes. Drain and let cool.

2. Peel and finely grate or mash the cooked sweet potatoes. Set aside.

3. In a large saucepan, melt the butter in medium heat, then add the condensed milk and vanilla flavouring. Stir well to mix.

4. Add the grated/mashed sweet potatoes and adjust the heat to low.

5. Keep on stirring to mix all the ingredients for about 30 minutes or until sticky and a bit dry (but still moist).
6. Add the evaporated milk and thickened cream and continue to stir for another 15 minutes.
7. Place in a dish to cool and top with flaked almonds (or any nuts you would like). Once cooled, chill for an hour or two before serving.

My Grandma's Torta

Torta is an egg yolk-based cake. This is commonly served as dessert during special occasions in my hometown Bohol, Philippines. Or even for usual morning/afternoon tea/coffee time. My grandmother made a lot of these during our christmas holiday back home in 2009. I've always loved torta when I was a child but it never entered my mind before to learn how to do this myself. Anyway, my husband ate a lot of these during our holiday and was quite adamant that I try making some when we get back in Australia. So, I asked my grandmother for her recipe on this. And my first try wasn't bad. I still need to improve on this in a lot of ways. I mean - my grandma's torta never had that brownish crust but still the inside was fully cooked. I guess, it may have something to do with the fact that she uses her traditional oven to bake these. Of course, I don't have that option here but will try to check on the oven temperature the next time. At any rate, it was good for a first try and my husband (always a great supporter in my cooking experiments) loved them. If you like the recipe on this (whoever you are) feel free to drop me your email here and I will share that with you. :-)

Coconut Bread

My officemate gave me this recipe. Very very easy to make for such a tasty recipe. My husband and I literally loved this. And I'm thinking that I will make more of these from time to time. This is fantastic with tea.

Ingredients:

1 cup desiccated coconut

1 cup self raising flour
¾ cup of sugar
¾ cup milk

1. Preheat the oven at 190 celsius. Grease a 12-capacity muffin tray (or you can use any baking dish that you have).
2. Mix all ingredients. Then, distribute the mixture on each of the muffin tray (or baking dish of your preference).
3. Bake for about 15 - 20 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.

Zucchini Fritters with Peanut Satay Sauce

I was thinking about what to do else with the zucchinis we have at home. Zucchinis are available all year round here in Australia but they are more abundant in early summer. So, I scanned the net and look for easy zucchini recipes. The zucchini fritters at All Recipes looks quite good so I did my try on that. As my husband and I love spicy food and we happened to have a lot of chillies - I threw in some finely chopped red and green chillies on top of the other ingredients from All Recipes and they were just great. My husband loved it. And so did I. :-) And I've learned another way to cook zucchinis!

Then, I thought what sauce or dipping that would complement the fritters. At first - I was thinking of the usual dipping that I use for savoury menus i.e. throw in a little of vinegar, soy sauce, lemon juice and some red chillies. Then, I remembered the peanut satay sauce recipe given by my office mate. This is real easy to make - especially for first timers like me and it was wonderful paired with the Zucchinis. So, here goes.

Ingredients:
2 tbsp of oil (I used extra virgin olive oil)
1 finely chopped onion
1 finely chopped clove garlic
1 tsp chilli power (I used chilli paste)
2 tsps curry powder
½ tsp ginger powder (I used ginger paste)
¼ cup of vinegar
2 tbps peanut butter
½ cup of chutney (I used the tamarind chutney)
1 cup of water


1. In a saucepan, sauté the onion and garlic with the oil.
2. Then, add the rest of the ingredients and simmer to thicken.
3. Serve together with the fritters.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

One time, I was watching the food channel on Foxtel and they happened to show this recipe. This one is pretty easy, too - and you only need 5 types of ingredients. And it tastes yummy (or at least that's what my husband said :-D ) and perfect for a gluten-free chocolate cake. So, here goes.

Ingredients:

400 grams of dark chocolate

300 grams of unsalted butter

10 eggs

3 tablespoons of cocoa (sifted)

225 grams of caster sugar

1. Pre-heat the oven at 180 degress celsius. Line a baking pan with baking paper.

2. Melt the chocolate and butter under low heat. Try not to stir too much the mixture while it's melting to avoid the dark chocolate from tasting bitter. Remove from heat once the chocolate-butte mixture is totally melted.

3. Separate the yolks from the whites of the eggs. Beat the egg yolks and sugar together then, set aside. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites as well then, set aside.

4. In a large bowl, mix the chocolate-butter mixture, beaten egg yolks-sugar and cocoa until well combined.

5. Then, fold in the beaten eggwhites gradually (about 3 times) until well combined.

6. Pour the mixture into the lined baking pan and bake for about 35 minutes or until done (insert a toothpick at the centre and once it comes out clean, then it's done).

7. Cool for a few minutes before serving.

Notes: I topped the cake with strawberries as I happen to have a lot of strawberries that time. And I just find that strawberries eaten with chocolate cake are yummy as the flavours sort of complement each other. But you can use any toppings you like. For the presentation: the well formed at the middle was done by putting a baking paper on top of the cake (right after taking out from the oven so it's still hot) and then, placing a deep plate with a very heavy object (e.g. water melon or pumpkin) on top of the cake for an hour or two.

Choc Chip Cookies

This is a real easy recipe. This was one of the few recipes I tried a few months ago and my husband just loved it. So - it did boost my confidence a bit to keep me going. If you are like me, a beginner in the kitchen, then it's good to start on simple recipes. And as Chef Auguste Gusteau in the movie Ratatouille said: "Anyone can cook!".

Here goes the recipe for this lovely home made choc chip cookies. Enjoy...:-)

Ingredients:

150 g unsalted butter
1/3 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup soft brown sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 cup dark choc bits
1/2 cup milk choc bits

1. Pre-heat the oven at 180 celsius degrees. Grease 2 baking trays and line with non-stick baking paper.
2. Beat the butter, caster and brown sugar, and egg yolk in a bowl using an electric beater until light and creamy.
3. Add the vanilla essence and beat until combined.
4. Add the flour and half of the choc bits. Stir until just combined.
5. Press the mixture together to form a soft dough.
6. Roll the mixtures into balls using a tablespoon. Then, press the reamining choc bits firmly on top of the balls.
7. Arrange the balls on the tray, leaving room for spreading.
8. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until crisp and lightly browned.
9. Cool on the tray before serving.